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Friend,
The Rubber Stamp Rebellion has begun! It was launched last week at a spirited Pancakes not Pipelines action at FERC, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, in Washington, D.C. A month and a half from now, that organized rebellion will engage in more actions in DC and in localities around the country as our movement says to FERC: Stop rubber-stamping gas industry permit applications and change the way you operate. Prioritize the emergence of wind, solar and other renewables above fossil fuels. We say: No New Permits!
The action last week included the arrests of Pennsylvania landowner Megan Holleran, filmmaker Josh Fox, singer Bethany Yarrow of the musical duo Bethany and Rufus, and four other freedom-from-fossil-fuels fighters. Josh explained why now is the time our movement needs to step it up:
“Everyone I know is fighting a pipeline or a compressor station or a power plant that is in front of FERC for approval. It is clear to me that FERC has to be the most destructive agency in the United States right now. They are faceless, nameless, un-elected and ignore citizen input. I think of FERC as the Phantom Menace. The agency’s commissioners have been rubber-stamping fracking infrastructure all over the country that threatens local communities and the planet by accelerating climate change.”
We urge you to join us in D.C. the week of May 15-22 or by taking action in your local community during that time. We also need your financial support to make the Rubber Stamp Rebellion all that it can be, all that it has to be. Local communities around the country continue to be under the gun as the fracking and fossil fuel industries keep trying to expand their reach. They are doing so despite the countries of the world agreeing in Paris last December on the need for immediate action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.Please donate generously to cover the costs of a successful Rebellion mobilization.
Beyond Extreme Energy and frontline groups around the country have been having an impact. For the first time in decades, because of strong resistance on the ground and the economic troubles of the gas industry, FERC actually rejected a permit for a fracking pipeline and gas export terminal in Oregon earlier this month.1 And there are other signs that our resistance movement is having an impact. Now is the time to let FERC know that we will not stop until they stop being a rubber stamp agency under the control of the fossil fuel industry!
BXE’s continuing and escalating monthly disruptions of FERC Commissioners meetings got national attention when they were described recently in the New York Times: Environmental Activists Take to Local Protests for Global Results (March 20).2
We look forward to hearing from you as we step it up together.
For a fossil fuel future,
Ted Glick, Drew Hudson and the Beyond Extreme Energy team at Environmental Action
1 - Geoffrey Riley, FERC Denies Permits For Jordan Cove, LNG Pipeline, Jefferson Public Radio, March 11, 2016
- Dan Healing, Veresen signs Jordan Cove LNG buyer but FERC approvals still not certain, Calgary Herald, March 22, 20161
2 - John Schwartz, Environmental Activists Take to Local Protests for Global Results, The New York Times, March 19, 2016
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